Complexity in language: A multifaceted phenomenon

Abstract

© Salikoko S. Mufwene, Christophe Coupé, and François Pellegrino 2017. Complexity has attracted a great deal of attention in linguistics since 2001, at a rate that proportionally far exceeds its invocations in the field since Ferdinand de Saussure, the father of our discipline, in the early twentieth century. The number of books bearing complexity in their title is remarkable, suggesting that there may be an emergent research area whose focus is COMPLEXITY in Language. The dominant question that the relevant linguists have addressed is the following: To what extent does complexity as observed in different languages or in different modules of the language architecture display both cross-systemic variation and universal principles? This has entailed asking whether there are languages that are more complex than others and explaining the nature of differences. One is struck by the sheer number of book-length publications alone, and even more when the numerous journal articles and chapters in edited volumes are added to the total count, regardless of whether or not they include complex(ity) in their title. On the other hand, one is also shocked by the scarcity of works that explain what COMPLEXITY is, apparently because it is assumed to be known. This is quite at variance with publications outside linguistics, which are devoted to explaining various ways in which the notion can be interpreted. The subject matter has actually also evolved into what is identified by some as “complexity theory” or the “science of complexity” (see footnote citations). Thus, a convenient starting point for this chapter and this book is to explain what is meant by complexity as it applies both to linguistics and other research areas. Etymologically, the term complexity, as a nominalization from complex, can ultimately be traced to Latin complexus, a past participle of the deponent verb complecti ‘embrace, comprise,’ according to Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, and also confirmed by the French Petit Robert, which translates it as contenir ‘contain.’ According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the adjective complex ‘composed of parts’ was borrowed from French complexe ‘complicated, complex, intricate’ (seventeenth century), from Latin complexus ‘surrounding, encompassing,’ past participle of complecti ‘to encircle, embrace.’ In transferred use, the verb meant ‘to hold fast, master, comprehend’, from com- ‘with’ and plectere ‘to weave, braid, twine, entwine.’ The noun complex evolved to mean ‘a whole comprised of parts.'.